The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has said that the country’s power supply would drop by 1.5 gigawatts due to Monday’s destruction of gas pipeline in Gbaramatu, Warri in Delta.

The Managing Director, Nigerian Gas Company, Mr Dafe Sejebor made this known to newsmen after a tour of the vadalised facilities in Inikorogha, Ubefan and Balan in Gbaramotu Delta.

The managing director who was represented by the Executive Director Services, Mr Joseph Olisa, said the nation would lose N2.5 billion within 21 days that the gas supply would be restored.
He explained that whenever there was destruction on pipelines it affected production and stopped supply of gas thereby leading to loss of revenue.

“When these pipelines are tampered with the gas volumes that are supposed to be sent to the power plants are lost.

“Whenever it happens we lose up to 1.5 gigawatts to the national grid.

“That is colossal in terms of cost volume of almost 200 million standard cubic feet of gas being lost per day,” he said.

While expressing regrets over the spate of vandalism on gas pipelines in the recent times, the managing director described the act as economic sabotage.

According to him, the recent vandalism which is on the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) is core to the nation’s power supply.

He said the pipeline was the heart beat or the core of pipelines that took gas to the western part of the country.

“The truth is that we have been having vandalism but the spate at which it is happening now is alarming.

“In the past few weeks we have really had it so bad that it is impacting negatively on power generation in the country.

“The core fuel to most of the power plant in this country is NGC gas, so if we cannot take power to the power plant generation suffers,” he said.

He said the bleed being experienced in the generation and availability of power in the country was due to activities of vandals.

He, therefore, called on the host communities and other stakeholders to help the government in stemming the spate of vandalism in their areas.